Latest Posts

When you come from the LGBT side of the spectrum, there’s always the desire to see something like you on the television, in movies, or in the books that you read. I mean that’s one of the reasons that I wanted to become a writer in the first place. The ability to not only experience in your own life but to view from others, that the life that you are living is a wonderful thing. When you’re isolated because of something like your sexuality, that isolation can lead you down two paths – either down the lighted path where you see others like you and you realize that you’re not so different after all, or the darker path that some take that closes them off from society even further.

There’s a wonderful, compact snippet that explains the appeal of queerbaiting by the media, and how it’s used. And while the original source has been removed from the Internet, thanks to wonderful sites that archive off entire websites, it’s been preserved. Originally from an article called “Please Do Not Bait The Queers“, it goes:

Queerbaiting works on its audience because it offers the suggestion that queer people do have a vital place in these stories, that they might even be the defining figures, the heroes. The suggestion—but not the reality.

There are many examples of queerbaiting out there, from the never-ending examples on Supernatural to Sherlock to the new series Riverdale. Even small series aren’t immune from it. TBS has a half hour comedy show based on ABC’s “Lost” called “Wrecked” that had a genuinely large, funny cast, and lots of diversity. They punched through stereotypes, like having a female character be the one who was the hunter, supplying everyone with food. They had a good mixture of characters and were never too afraid to let a character lead a scene, even if they were a minor character from another episode. And yes, they seemed to even allude to a queer romance between Danny and Owen; from Danny saying, “Thanks, hon,” in one episode, to being recalled as a queer couple in a dream sequence, to picking out a spot to (platonically) spend their nights together, to being referred to by other characters like, “Do it. Do it for your lover,” when one of the two was endangered.

But season two of Wrecked took a decidedly different turn, even though the queerbaiting continued, albeit one-sided. Danny and Owen, who were pretty much in each scene together during season one, were more separated in season two (which was quite reminiscent of the Hawaii Five-0 fandom between season one and season two in which they walked back from queerbaiting, and lost a good percentage of their audience). Danny still acted out his side of the “romance”, but Owen had a new love interest in Florence. But it wasn’t just Owen’s new romance that changed; it was Owen’s attitude towards Danny. His attitude went from one of mutual teasing and affection to something closer to disdain, like the gif in this tweet shows. And it only got worse as the season continued.

Last night was the second season finale for Wrecked, and indeed, they went full “No-Homo” on the show. There was no doubt, either from Owen or Danny’s character, that everything between them up to that point was all just a joke, and that whatever happened during season one wasn’t how they’d meant it at all. Even Danny’s one-sidedness devolved into, “I mean it’s not like I want to touch your butt or anything.”

It’s all so tiring.

Wrecked itself is a cute show and a cute 22-minute diversion from reality. But if I would have known I was being baited into watching it at the very beginning, I probably would have passed.

One thing that hits every single aspect of my life is music. Be it the background noise while I’m writing, what I do to keep me just distracted enough to keep me focused while doing my day job, or what I bounce to while I’m cleaning. Music is in just about every aspect of my life.

Stephen King writes to artists like Metallica. I was talking to another writer about music (Soren Summers) and he mentioned that he listens to artists like Gesaffelstein. I, personally, listen to classical music for what I need in my environment when I write. But it’s not just the music that’s there – it’s the music that enhances what you’re writing.

For instance, Soren’s choice of Gesaffelstein is something that I could definitely listen to if I was writing erotica. There is something sensual in the beats, the rhythm, the trance that the music puts you in, and that overall it just gives you the chance to let go of yourself. And if you’re writing an effective sex scene – not a lovemaking scene, a sex scene – then why not listen to something that’s raw, and a bit animalistic?

When writing parts of A Million Miles Amok, I actually chose to write without music, and used the noisy aircraft cabin as my ambience. But when I wrote Migration: Beginnings, I actually varied what I wrote. In the “setup” type scenes, I listened to regular classical music. But in a couple of pivotal action sequences, I actually put “O Fortuna” on repeat. Why? Because it’s one single piece of music that has been used in critical action sequences in multiple movies, and I wanted to see if I could capture that same type of energy as I wrote.

Music is pretty big for me, and as I don’t have much to blog about right now (because rewrites kinda suck!), I thought I’d start a little side bit here about music. Not just music when it comes to writing, but also music in the movies. Because music can make or break a film, turning a cinematically-filmed marvel into a two dimensional piece of entertainment. I mean, when it came to films from 2005, the cinematic marvel was “Brokeback Mountain”, though it would not be as successful if Gustavo Santaolalla hadn’t penned the beautiful piece “The Wings“. What would Close Encounters of the Third Kind be without the pivotal “Dialogue” scene? And the movie Jaws wouldn’t have been half as scary without those few low notes from a tuba and woodwinds that started it all.

I, personally, was ready to dismiss the remake of the 1950s classic “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” – until I not only saw the movie, but the accompanying music. Sure, the scene with Walter Mitty jumping on the helicopter as Kristen Wiig and David Bowie sang “Space Oddity” was a turning point not only for Walter, but for the movie itself. But to me, both the cinematography and lyrics to the song “Far Away” do the most when it comes to non-verbal communication with the audience. Mitty, a guy who has a nonplussed life, suddenly is feeling alive again as he skateboards down a deserted road. Even the lyrics are there. “Step in front of a runaway train, just to feel alive again.” There’s a link on Youtube, but unless you see the whole thing, it doesn’t impact you as much as the whole film does.

So here goes. A dialogue on music that’ll happen from time to time. Because why not?

One of the overwhelming things they tell you when you want to be a writer is that you have to read a lot. So I’m reading in my professional writing genre quite a bit, and enjoying it. Even the recent series that I stumbled upon, which has zombies (something I don’t like only because zombies are the only thing that can give me nightmares) is amazing. If anyone is interested, check out it’s called the Vertex series by Soren Summers. I didn’t know there were going to be zombies going into it, but it is oh so worth it.

Getting to the meat of my post, I wanted to talk about writing books. I don’t read books about writing. Rather, I listen to them (thank goodness for audiobooks!). I’ve only listened to 4 so far, but there’s something I took away from each.

Natalie Goldberg’s “Writing Down The Bones” and “Thunder and Lightning”. I listened to Bones first, and then after another book, Thunder and Lightning. There’s a bit of good that comes from each book, though they mostly talk about process and background. Goldberg is an old fashioned type writer, if I may say so. She talks about writing practice, and filling up stacks and stacks of notebooks. Writing practice is where you kind of let go and get in touch with what kind of writer you are. There’s a general guideline she has of “Maybe do writing practice two years before you attempt anything professional” and I can see that. But she goes on to say that the two year rule is more of a guideline than anything. The thing about Goldberg’s books, especially Bones, was that I would listen to them as I went on long afternoon walks – and whether it was her cadence or voice or just being inspiring, I spent a lot of the time with ideas for stories flooding my brain. How to work out a specific detail about the next Migration book? Well, it came to me as Goldberg was talking about a writing workshop in Minnesota, or the time she spent writing short poems for people at a farmer’s market for $1 per page. In all, I did enjoy both books, and though my mindset is more in the Thunder and Lightning realm, I enjoyed Bones much more.

Stephen King’s “On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft”. This book confused me when I started it. King talks mostly about his childhood for the first 20% of the book. But the way he can tell a tale is amazing. His time discussing how he missed a lot of school and ended up in the doctor’s with an ear infection multiple times just creeped me the hell out. But the overwhelming thing about King’s work is the lesson that comes natural through the discussion of the book. Think you might have an idea? Go ahead and write it, because you’re meant to. Nobody can tell a tale in your voice but you. And even some of the most well known stuff by King started out when he was processing laundry for hospitals and doing other menial tasks. Even in those bleak moments of his life, he was able to get something written down on paper that changed the world. The book is almost like a list of do’s and don’t’s on writing, but sprinkled around an interesting life so that if you’re not paying attention, you might miss them. One thing he has said that bugged me, though, was the lesson “If you have a possessive apostrophe and the word ends with the letter S, it’s still an apostrophe S in your writing.” Of course in Migration there’s a lot of stuff done by Rhys – so that would mean I would have to go back and change them all from saying things like “Rhys’ voice was soft behind the roar of the waterfall” to “Rhys’s voice was soft behind the roar of the waterfall.” I think that’s the only thing I don’t agree with – but who am I to say? Maybe I just no longer have names that end with S in my writing as a way of getting around it? ::grin::

Annie Dillard’s “The Writing Life”. Oh man. I had high hopes for this book after listening to just the very beginning, especially after the inchworm story. I’ll leave it here:

Dillard writes a passage about an inchworm, the proverbial inchworm, that inches its way to the top of a long piece of grass. It gets to the top and says, “What? No Further?” It starts panicking, it starts wriggling, it starts looking for somewhere further to go. Finally, it bends the grass over to another piece, it attaches itself, and it starts climbing to the top again. But when it finally gets there, it exclaims, “What? No further? End of world?” “Why don’t you just jump?” asks Dillard, “disgusted. ‘Put yourself out of your misery.'”

This little passage spoke to me so much. Why? Because I sometimes go into a bit of a creative tailspin thinking I don’t have anything creative in me. It’s like a tree branch that grows into my prison cell. I took and took and took from the branch, plucking all the wonderful creative bits and ended up snapping the branch in half. And even though I can reach through the bars of my cell, and brush my fingers against the stub of creativity that hovers just far out of reach, that’s all I get. Yes, I feel like I get a morsel every now and again, most mostly I sit there staring at the branch, wondering why it’s so far gone when I need it the most.

I am the inchworm. I’ve reached the tip of that blade of grass, and wail back and forth because creativity is gone. I’m at the end of my world and don’t know what to do next.

But that’s where Dillard’s book left me. After the first ten minutes, it was just a mishmash of semi-connected stories on what she did when she wrote. What cabins she rented. The weather. That time she went up in an airplane with a guy who ended up dying doing a barrel roll. For someone to inspire me so much in the first ten minutes, and then let me languish so much for the last three hours… Well, it was so disappointing.

So those are the four books I’ve listened to on writing. I’ve taken away something from each of them, and I’ll keep going.

If you have suggestions for writing books, please let me know. What was your favorite? What worked for you, and what didn’t? I enjoy listening to writing audiobooks as I deal with mundanity like weeding the yard or working on my 10,000 steps per day, because it brings a bit of brightness to a task that’s just shades of grey.

I’m at a point in my career where I get a chance to write, but it’s not my primary job. I’d love it to be; get up in the morning, spend a few hours writing, have some time to do marketing and just fun interactive stuff with writers and readers, and then a few more hours of writing. But that’s just not the case right now. My primary job is in Medical Information Technology, and I truly love it. But one day…

Thing is, Boo and I are going to India in August. Since we’re on the US West Coast, we’ve got multiple looooong flights (14 hours SEA to DXB, 4 hours DXB to BOM, 8 hours BOM to LHR, and 10 hours LHR to SEA) that would be perfect for getting quite a bit of writing done. Especially since I think August is a Camp NaNo month? Or maybe that’s July… Anyway, when you get paid to write, you cherish any time that you can spend on your craft. So it’s hard to read that the iPad/laptop ban may be extended to more countries. That means I might be able to travel with my laptop TO India, I wouldn’t be allowed to travel with it back to the United States.

We shall see what the fallout comes. But here’s hoping it’s not an all-out ban, because that would suck even worse than sitting next to a screaming toddler that just filled their diaper for a fourteen-hour flight.

So if you’re interested in getting Migration: Beginnings on a non-Kindle platform, then you should take a look at Smashwords. And as an incentive, you can use coupon code YP66G at checkout to take 25% off. Good only at Smashwords, and expires on March 31st – so head over there now!

So many people like and use the Kindle format, either on a Kindle reader itself or within the Kindle app. I tend to read that way, because it can keep track of your progress in a book, sync with Goodreads, among other things. But the thing for me is, it doesn’t sync between devices – at least not for books that you don’t get from Amazon. And if you take part in ARC (advance reading copies) programs or downloads from Instafreebies or the like, then that book stays on the device you downloaded it to and doesn’t get shared with your other devices.

Which is why I’m happy to announce that Migration: Beginnings is now available on not just Kindle, but iBooks, Smashwords, Barnes & Noble, and even libraries starting Tuesday, March 7th! The book is live in many of these bookstores, but get delivered to Kobo and libraries starting tomorrow. And as a special for libraries, I’ve made the books free. So if you’re interested in reading from your local library (many of which take advantage of the Overdrive reading app), you should be able to download a copy and read it from your libraries starting soon.

Oh man… So when I wrote ‘Migration: Beginnings’, all I had was the whiteboard (which I told you about in the first Vlog that I produced), and my notes that I typed up and kept in a Microsoft Word document. And that’s all I really needed. Why? Because it was so fresh in my head, that I never doubted a thing.

And then I finished the book, read quite a lot, and have written other stuff since then that’s not related to Migration. So when I went to write out something about Rhys, the lead character from Migration, I suddenly had to know what college he went to – where he got his undergrad work, and where he got his PhD. (Turns out that it was Boston College for the undergrad, and University of California, Berkeley for his PhD – if you were curious). I used to know these items in great detail, even though they weren’t a part of the book. It was still something that was in my head.

That’s why you should always start a book with not only an outline, but a character biography. Just a single page that tells you everything you need to know about the person. And I’ve started doing them now, in anticipation of continuing the sequel to Migration: Beginnings. Like for instance, Jason is the middle child of three, was voted his high school’s class clown, and went to the University of Washingon. Whereas Captain Clarice Franks is bisexual, was born in Germany but on a US Military base, and has wanted to fly ever since her father took her up in his private plane when she was barely out of diapers.

I belong to a few writing communities, one of which is called “Get Your Words Out,” that is hosted on Livejournal. I’ve pledged to write at least 150,000 words this year, which includes finishing the second book in the Migration series, as well as a short novella that is set before the series begins, just to get people acquainted with Rhys and Jason.

One of the prompts in the community is a picture prompt of two women who are sitting on a windowsill (you can see the picture here), and honestly it didn’t speak to me at all. I’m usually very good with writing for random prompts. However, I was stumped.

And then as I sat down this morning, the scene painted itself clearly to me. Though the image is of two women, the story of Rhys and Jason from Migration: Beginnings and how they are vacationing in Europe, and happen upon the two women sitting in the window.